This invention relates to a novel bulky nonwoven fabric formed by an orderly arrangement of fibers.
Many kinds of nonwoven fabrics have hitherto been developed, and are widely used for various applications.
There are, thus, various types of nonwoven fabrics, and various methods of making the same, including those known under the name of the melt-blowing method (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 10258/1974), the melt-blow molding method (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 46972/1975), the jet spinning method (Japanese Patent Publication No. 25871/1969), or the like. According to these methods, a thermoplastic resin is melt-spun, and blown in the form of fine fibers against a moving collector by a high-speed flow of a gas.
A study has recently come to be made about the use of the nonwoven fabrics obtained by these methods for making filter materials, carpets, synthetic leathers, or the like. However, the nonwoven fabrics prepared by any such method lack uniformity in thickness and basis weight, and are not bulky since, the fibers lie parallel to the fabric surfaces (i.e., two-dimensionally). These prior art products present various obstacles to the preparation of satisfactory products as intended, and no satisfactory carpet, leather or the like has yet been prepared from the nonwoven fabrics available in the art.
It is an object of this invention to provide a nonwoven fabric having a novel structure which eliminates the drawbacks of the nonwoven fabrics known in the art. This invention consists essentially in a nonwoven fabric comprising a plurality of stacked and intertwined long fibers defining one of cross-sectional planes extending between one surface of the fabric or a part thereof, and another surface of the fabric or a part thereof.